Led by the Apple iPad, media tablets are drawing consumer
interest, and dollars, away from PCs, forcing
Gartner analysts to lower their projections for 2011 and 2012.
In a March 3 report, Gartner said it now
expects worldwide PC shipments this year to
grow 10.5 percent over 2010 — instead of the 15.9 percent predicted earlier — reaching 387.8 million units in
2011, and by 13.6 percent, versus 14.8 percent, totaling 440.6 million units in
2012.
“We once thought that mobile PC growth would continue to be
sustained by consumers buying second and third mobile PCs as personal devices.
However, we now believe that consumers are not only likely to forgo additional
mobile PC buys but are also likely to extend the lifetimes of the mobile PCs
they retain as they adopt media tablets and other mobile PC alternatives as
their primary mobile device,” Gartner Research Director George Shiffler said in
a statement.
At fault, said Gartner, are a near-term weakness in China’s
mobile PC market (China
is expected to account for the bulk of tablet shipments this yearÖ — 41
percent, compared to just 11 percent by the United
States, according to ABI Research) and the PC industry itself.
While the appeal of mobile PCs has been their portability,
Gartner analysts said, “mainstream mobile
PCs have not shed sufficient weight, and do not offer the all-day battery life
to substantiate their promise of real mobility. These limitations have become
all the more apparent with the rapid spread of social networking, which thrives
on constant and immediate connections. In short, all-day untethered computing
has yet to materialize, and that has exposed the ‘mobile’ PC as merely a
transportable PC at best.”
For more, read the eWeek article: iPad, Other Tablets Will Hurt PC Sales, Gartner Says.
